"Poor Vi!"
"Don't talk nonsense, Margaret; there's no poverty in such a state as mine. I'm far richer than you, because I have the only thing which life has to offer worth having. Don't speak; let me continue. You've read the fairy tale in which the heroine gets the gift of sight--it's an allegory. She meets one person in whose nature there is nothing hidden from her; she can see into his very heart. Now start laughing: I can see into Sydney Beaton's very heart."
"My dear, I'm very far from laughing. You're not the only girl who has thought she had that gift where a particular man was concerned. What would the police have said if they had caught the gentleman you name in the very act? You know, they don't consider motives, or peer into hearts; they only deal with facts."
"You don't understand."
"Well, make me."
"Aren't I trying to? But you will keep interrupting. Sydney has never been exactly wise----"
"So you've told me."
The girl took no heed of the interruption; she only glared.
"But I will answer for his standard of honour, and honesty, as I would for my own."
"I wouldn't."